Hydro

Does anyone know if Canadian hydro companies report irregular high usage to authorities? I read an article that BC does but im more specifically asking about Ontario. Has anyone had a knock on the door? if so, how much juice you pulling? If you havent, also, how much juice you using?

Thanks guys, i like how the Canadian sub-forum is a bunch of close nit dudes

I've never had any problems, had 4.6kw worth of lights going at my old place. That house also had a basement apartment, and the tenant had 2kw of lights over his salt water aquarium. Asked my neighbor one time what his power bills usually ran, and even with 6.6kw of lights my bills were still less then his. He did have a large hot tub they used all year round and 4 kids.

I do know if have a smart meter they can graph your power usage and will see that tell tale 12/12 pattern.

redi jedi said:

I've never had any problems, had 4.6kw worth of lights going at my old place. That house also had a basement apartment, and the tenant had 2kw of lights over his salt water aquarium. Asked my neighbor one time what his power bills usually ran, and even with 6.6kw of lights my bills were still less then his. He did have a large hot tub they used all year round and 4 kids.

I do know if have a smart meter they can graph your power usage and will see that tell tale 12/12 pattern.

Click to expand...

Im on 4000w flip-flop 24hrs. So 8000w and i havent had a problem or inquiry from anyone.

Pulling 340 plus kw's a day with Hydro One and no knock.

Have read in other forums that BC will report but not sure if that is true.

Rustydog said:

Pulling 340 plus kw's a day with Hydro One and no knock.

Have read in other forums that BC will report but not sure if that is true.

Click to expand...

You must mean 340 kilowatt hours per day?

one, 1000w lamp running for one hour is 1kwh

Yes I guess I forgot the hours part.

It might be an issue if you were running that much in a one bedroom apartment where usage levels would be out of character for the area. If you have a garage there are many things that can excuse a ton of usage.

I remember reading that a high hydro bill alone is not enough reason for probable cause, as long as you pay your bill you'll be fine the only thing they may do is ask you if your aware of the high usage thinking maybe your metre is broken,

I do have a question about hydro though, I live in the country and 45% of my bill is just delivery does anyone else have this problem, its like paying double per kw hour it sucks

Rustydog said:

Pulling 340 plus kw's a day with Hydro One and no knock.

Have read in other forums that BC will report but not sure if that is true.

Click to expand...

So dividing that by 24hours a day, making it 14.1/kwh...

Could you elaborate on what your running? if your not comfortable please dont. Im running 8 wanting to run 12.

I logged into my Hydro one acc to check.
For 12 hours I draw about 8 kw per hour and the other 12 I draw about 21 kw per hour.
about 340 kwh per day.

My flower room has 11,000 watts, 2 x 2 ton ductless splits, Co2 fans etc.
Veg room is 2400 watts, 1 ton a/c cloner etc.

The total is for my 700 sqft house, almost half is for grow.

As for the del. charge I hate it. I'm out in the country and it sucks.
I haven't rec a bill since may when my flower room was half the size. Even then I was paying about $1400.00 a month. Figure when I finally do get a bill it will be about $2000.00 a month.

Also heard that the smart meter can detect the flip-flop. Not sure if it's true or not.
But for a second the power would be dropped when switching from one set of relays to another???
Just a quess.

I do have a smart meter. The only good thing about it is that they don't come on the property to read it which means I don't have to lock my dog up. He dosen't like strangers.

I like the new metre to cause before they would only come read the metre like every 3 or 4 months so we would get guesstimates for 2 or 3 months then the next bill would either be a credit or a really low bill. The nice thing about living in the country though is you could have a $5000 hydro bill and they wouldn't even suspect a thing

Alright just checking guys, looks like alot of good information here. Hope this helps more then just me and im sure it has. If your wondering, im trying to have alot of storage come march 31st. Talking to some of the heavys in toronto, there going to keep growing and fight it later if shit comes to shit.

Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and that court case at the end of the month will delay things but certainly not holding my breath.

Rustydog said:

Also heard that the smart meter can detect the flip-flop. Not sure if it's true or not.
But for a second the power would be dropped when switching from one set of relays to another???
Just a quess.

I do have a smart meter. The only good thing about it is that they don't come on the property to read it which means I don't have to lock my dog up. He dosen't like strangers.

Click to expand...

untrue, ballasts dont turn off it just takes 5secs for lamps to flip and ignite.

So for that 5 seconds the power use would drop.
If the bulbs aren't burning than even if the ballast are on they are not using the same power.
Think about plugging in a ballast with no bulb. Is it drawing the same power as a ballast with a bulb?

I could be wrong but depending on how accurate the smart meters are. They may be able to see that 5 sec drop.
I have never used or even seen a flip flop, so please explain if you think I am wrong. Not trying to start anything. Just trying to learn.
Thanks

Rustydog said:

So for that 5 seconds the power use would drop.
If the bulbs aren't burning than even if the ballast are on they are not using the same power.
Think about plugging in a ballast with no bulb. Is it drawing the same power as a ballast with a bulb?

I could be wrong but depending on how accurate the smart meters are. They may be able to see that 5 sec drop.
I have never used or even seen a flip flop, so please explain if you think I am wrong. Not trying to start anything. Just trying to learn.
Thanks

Click to expand...

Ok here we go, i have 4 ballasts, those 4 ballasts are connected to a flip flop relay, flip flop relay has 8 out put lamp cords, that flip flop relay also has a 110v plug attached to it for a basic timer, that timer is set to 12/12, once that timer hits its 2nd cycle of 12/12 being that there is 24hours in a day 4 lights will turn off and 4 more will turn on. The ballast never turns off. The only delay is the relays snaping into place for the 2nd set of 4 lights. The ballast never turns off, if it did digital ballasts would take 5-10 minutes to start Flower Room B. Power is constant, nothing is ever turned off.

Sorry, you didn't have to type all that. I do have a basic knowledge of their operation.
So I guess it really depends on how sensitive the meters are.

Say the relay is powering the left side(4 lights) and flips to the right side(other 4 lights). For that fraction of a second there would be less draw.
If we can agree that a plugged in ballast with no light would draw less power than when a light is attached.

So if it's only a fractions of a second. I doubt that the meter could pick it up.

Pretty sure the hydro company doesn't care as long as you pay your bill. If you steal power, on the other hand, you can be sure they'll get the cops involved.

Rustydog said:

Sorry, you didn't have to type all that. I do have a basic knowledge of their operation.
So I guess it really depends on how sensitive the meters are.

Say the relay is powering the left side(4 lights) and flips to the right side(other 4 lights). For that fraction of a second there would be less draw.
If we can agree that a plugged in ballast with no light would draw less power than when a light is attached.

So if it's only a fractions of a second. I doubt that the meter could pick it up.

Click to expand...

the smart meter can detect the spike when the split ignites the cold lamps. the switch over is fractions of a second so the loss of power would be basically undetectable. our voltage is 60hz which means on an ac wave that the voltage basically turns on and off 60 times a second so the switch wont be detected on loss or lack of power but the spike from igniting cold lamps will last several minutes then slowly drop when the heat up so that is detectable.
ps: bc hydro only forwards possibility of theft to the man. i work in the field so i know some schtuff.......